BBC: What’s been ‘occurring’ in Wales for 100 years

It began with a sing-song because it so usually does in Wales and a part of its legacy is the phrase ‘what’s occurring?’ and the world’s most well-known physician.

But the BBC in Wales hasn’t simply given us exhibits like Gavin and Stacey and Doctor Who, it is lined a very powerful occasions in the nation’s historical past.

As Monday marks the one hundredth anniversary of the BBC’s first broadcast in Wales, I’ve seemed in the archives to seek out its most important moments since 1923.

When baritone Mostyn Thomas sang conventional Welsh language folks track Dafydd y Garreg Wen on the night of the BBC’s first broadcast from Wales on 13 February, 1923, it signalled the beginning of celebrating Welsh tradition on the airwaves.

Back then, Cardiff’s 5WA was the one BBC radio station in Wales and it was the place The Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales was first broadcast on the BBC on 3 August, 1924.

Now the National Eisteddfod is the BBC’s third largest exterior broadcast behind Wimbledon and Glastonbury with protection in each Welsh and English languages.

The damming of the River Tryweryn and flooding the Snowdonia village of Capel Celyn to create a reservoir to supply an English metropolis with water is among the many most controversial moments in trendy Wales.

The reservoir for the then Liverpool Corporation was agreed in a invoice handed by parliament – though not a single Welsh MP voted in favour. The metropolis of Liverpool has since apologised for the “harm” and “insensitivity” induced.

The creation of Llyn Celyn is broadly seen as a catalyst for a rising devolution motion. The dam was bombed during its construction in February 1963.

The 12 months after it opened, the man that spearheaded the campaign to stop Tryweryn turned Plaid Cymru’s first MP.

Once upon a time, a visit from south Wales to London – and even Bristol – would take motorists all day. But with the chopping of a ribbon by The Queen in 1966, that journey time was slashed as the primary Severn Bridge opened south Wales up like by no means earlier than.

The Severn Bridge was additionally a part of Wales’ first stretch of motorway, making south Wales a greater related area for day-trippers, companies and commuters alike.

It was one of many darkest days in Wales’ historical past when, after weeks of torrential rain, 144 folks – 116 of them youngsters – died after a coal tip slid down onto Aberfan in the south Wales valleys.

Pupils had arrived for their closing day earlier than the October half-term just some minutes earlier than coal tip number seven engulfed Pantglas Junior School, in addition to homes in that a part of the village.

He was simply 20 years of age when the younger Prince Charles was formally invested because the Prince of Wales at a lavish occasion at Caernarfon Castle.

The six-hour broadcast was watched by a TV viewers of 500 million folks around the globe.

The Prince of Wales title and investiture polarised opinion in Wales. The occasion was performed towards a backdrop of protests – and even bombings.

Few issues are extra synonymous with Wales than rugby, and whereas there are lots of nice Welsh rugby wins over the years, the best second must be THAT attempt from Gareth Edwards.

Edwards was enjoying in Cardiff however for the Barbarians, not Wales, towards the mighty All Blacks in January 50 years in the past when…. effectively, click on the video above and watch for yourselves.

The industrial motion began in March 1984 as miners from Wales joined these from throughout the UK in picketing pits in an try and cease the National Coal Board and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Tory authorities shutting mines that have been turning into much less worthwhile.

The mines have been the earnings of tons of of Welsh households and the strike lasted a 12 months, however in the end noticed the decline of the business.

Pontypandy’s most well-known resident really heard his hearth bell chime on Welsh language TV first as Sam Tan. But a number of weeks later, Sam turned the hero subsequent door on the BBC too – and shortly turned a worldwide hit.

Fireman Sam – the cartoon of option to a sure inheritor to the throne, Prince George – is Wales’ largest youngsters’s TV export, broadcast in 155 nations internationally in 36 languages.

The numbers have been staggering when a 147,000 tonne tanker spewed 72,000 tonnes of oil over 120 miles (193km) of shoreline when it ran aground on rocks in west Wales.

The Sea Empress was on its option to an oil refinery close to Pembroke when catastrophe struck – and spilled crude oil onto the UK’s solely coastal nationwide park.

“Good morning, and it’s a superb morning in Wales” is what the then Welsh secretary Ron Davies stated when Wales voted to have its personal authorities, in what was described as “some of the necessary days in the historical past of our nation”.

Alun Michael led the primary minority Labour administration when the assembly met for the first time in Cardiff Bay in 1999, weeks earlier than The Queen and Prince of Wales formally opened the brand new administration.

Playing English soccer’s showpiece event exterior of England for the primary time whereas Wembley Stadium was rebuilt initially induced controversy.

But followers quickly grew to like FA Cup finals being performed in Cardiff because the Welsh capital was beamed throughout the globe.

Doctor Who was a science fiction cult TV basic again in the day, nevertheless it exploded into a world phenomenon when it obtained a reboot by BBC Wales and famend Welsh screenwriter Russell T Davies in 2005.

It turned the centrepiece of BBC One’s Saturday schedule and attracts a world viewers of 100 million folks throughout 65 nations.

It’s the hit BBC sitcom that has proved to be one of many UK’s biggest and best of the twenty first Century – and it’s filmed across the seaside city of Barry.

Gavin and Stacey is the comedy that coined a number of catchphrases like Nessa’s “tidy” and ‘Oh, what’s occurring?’ – and its comeback Christmas particular in 2019 was watched by greater than 1 / 4 of the UK’s inhabitants.